Monday 8 June 2009

What EPAN worked on last month

The CONCORD Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood working group (EPAN), which TRIALOG convenes, has had a busy month. Subgroups set up at the group’s last meeting in March have been working on a number of issues, and published a number of documents.

The case studies on civil society involvement in EU processes, which the group carried out over a number of months in 2008, have contributed to a number of papers submitted to the EC as part of its mid term review of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). The case studies (on Egypt and Ukraine) were summarised, with main themes and recommendations outlined for the review, and sent to the delegations in the relevant countries, as well as contributing to the inter-regional review.

A number of EPAN members went to the Eastern Partnership (EaP) civil society conference in Prague, which aimed to clarify the role and structure of the proposed Civil Society Forum (CSF). All the participants came back from the conference with concerns and questions so the group will contact DG External Relations for clarity on a number of points, before producing a position paper providing comments on key issues and recommendations.

A call for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement following the Gaza violence, a contentious issue, is still being discussed within the group. A position that has been adopted by the Maltese platform, is intended to be adopted as an EPAN position, and eventually a CONCORD position.

For all the latest EPAN documents please see: http://www.trialog.or.at/documents
For more information on EPAN activities please contact TRIALOG Policy Officer Rebecca Steel trialog@concordeurope.org

Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG

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